Re: Cross-ontologies reasoning

Jonathan - I was simply trying to provide some examples of 
contradictions (Drew didn't consider my assertion of beliefs with 
respect to Rush Limbaugh as a valid contradiction in a logical sense) 
-- the examples below were meant to be simple examples of where 
mapping is not difficult, but merging would be.
  -JH


At 14:22 -0500 1/2/04, Jonathan Borden wrote:
>Jim Hendler wrote:
>
>>
>>  Ontology 1:
>>   beginTime(human) = conception.
>>   necessarilybefore(conception, birth).
>>
>>  Ontology 2:
>>   beginTime(human) = birth.
>>   necessarilybefore(conception, birth).
>
>Aren't these simply two different definitions of something? You 
>*could* try to equate them, but wouldn't that simply be a 
>contradiction?
>
>>  or, perhaps
>>
>>  KidsOntology
>>   IsReal(Santa).
>>
>>  AdultOntology
>>   IsConceptual(Santa)
>>   IsReal disjoint IsConceptual.
>
>I guess that real people (as opposed to conceptual people) are just 
>terrific at dealing with all sorts of incosistencies in the world 
>(real+conceptual). Most real people don't know how to deal with 
>mathematical logic, so, for them, this is no problem :-)
>
>>
>>  Or, go back to the one I use in many of my talks -- there exists 
>>(or used to exist) a web page claiming the number of cows in texas 
>>was zero because they had been replaced with alien entities.  There 
>>are other pages which claim the number is in the 100s of millions. 
>>Both agree with some partial axiomization of what a cow is, but 
>>surely any naive merging of these would be inconsistent
>>
>Again, isn't this simply a contradiction? I say the cows in texas 
>are real, and you say they are aliens -- we are using the term "cows 
>in texas" to speak about entirely different "things", so to get this 
>back to the "business entity" and "transactions discussion", suppose 
>you purchase a (live) texas cow, to be delivered by Fedex, and it 
>arrives -- are you pissed that it isn't an alien? Can you sue? Do 
>ontologies have anything to help us here ... most courts would be 
>perfectly amused by such a suit without any need for formal logic to 
>assist :-)
>
>Jonathan

-- 
Professor James Hendler			  http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/hendler
Director, Semantic Web and Agent Technologies	  301-405-2696
Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Lab.	  301-405-6707 (Fax)
Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742	  240-277-3388 (Cell)

Received on Friday, 2 January 2004 14:37:00 UTC